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In a statement issued on March 18, promoters for the band's 14 On Fire tour announced the March 19 date would "not be going ahead as scheduled."

The first date of the Rolling Stones’ tour of Australia has been postponed, promoters for the trek jointly announced on March 18. The band was due to take the stage at the Perth Arena on March 19. The sudden death of singer Mick Jagger’s girlfriend, designer L'Wren Scott, by apparent suicide was expected to impact the date.

The veteran British band arrived in Perth early Monday to considerable fanfare ahead of an Australasia trek that was due to start Wednesday in the Western Australia capital.

The Stones’ 14 On Fire tour was scheduled to stop at seven venues across Australia and New Zealand, starting Wednesday night in Perth and wrapping Apr. 5 at Mt. Smart Stadium in Auckland.

The opening night in Perth, however, has been wiped off the itinerary while the band’s iconic frontman deals with his personal tragedy. In a statement issued late Tuesday afternoon, Frontier Touring and Concerts West jointly announced the date would “not be going ahead as scheduled.” The statement continued,“No further information is available at this time. Ticket holders are asked to hold onto their tickets until a further update is available.”

It remains unclear at this stage whether the rest of the tour will be affected, and some reports out of Perth have further blurred the situation. One story suggested Jagger had boarded a flight en route to the United States. The band’s Tongue plane (see photo) remained parked on the tarmac, however.

A representative said the band had “gathered together in Perth, where they’re dealing with the situation,” and that reports of Jagger leaving the country were -- “to their knowledge” -- not entirely correct.

The band's next scheduled date, the March 22 show, was meant to be a grand curtain-raiser for the newly rehabbed Adelaide Oval venue. The state government of South Australia had pledged $450,000 Australian dollars (around $425,000 U.S.) to secure the booking as part of half-billion-dollar renovation of the stadium. According to a statement issued at the time by joint organizers International Entertainment Consulting (IEC) in association with Michael Gudinski’s Frontier Touring and AEG Live, the concert was “easily going to be one of the biggest, if not the biggest, stage and production Adelaide has ever seen,” boasting such massive production that the staging would require 60 trucks to carry the load.

The Stones haven’t rolled into Australia since the A Bigger Bang tour in 2006, which stopped only in Sydney and Melbourne. Fans in Perth and Adelaide haven’t seen the band perform since the Voodoo Lounge trek back in 1995.

The postponement comes hours after reports broke of Scott's apparent suicide in her Manhattan apartment. She and Jagger had dated since 2001, and she designed the Rolling Stones frontman's costumes for the band's 50th anniversary tour, which took the Concert Marketing & Promotion category (with Citi) at Billboard's Touring Awards.

Rolling Stones tour dates for Australia and New Zealand are listed below: